Community-based hepatitis C virus screening can identify individuals who are unaware of their infection and not regularly engaged in care. We report on a pilot study exploring the utility of using HIV surveillance data to identify targeted, geographical areas with high HIV prevalence and poor care indicators for screening baby boomers at risk for HCV. Between August-September 2014, we conducted community-based HCV rapid testing in high-risk census tracts. Eligible participants were born from 1945–1965 and not currently engaged in HCV care. Overall, 30% were HCV-antibody positive, 34% had a medical visit in the past year and among those with a medical visit, 75% had never been HCV-tested before. Using HIV surveillance data for targeted, community-based HCV testing yielded a high prevalence of untreated HCV cases. A large proportion had never been HCV-tested, suggesting this testing paradigm may be effective in reaching individuals at risk for HCV in a community-based setting.

If you would like to authenticate using a different subscribed institution that supports Shibboleth authentication or have your own login and password to Project MUSE, click 'Authenticate'.

Recommend

Additional Information

ISSN

1548-6869

Print ISSN

1049-2089

Pages

pp. 964-974

Launched on MUSE

2018-08-13

Open Access

No

Archive Status

Project MUSE Mission

Project MUSE promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves.